Articles and Essays

 A quarter-century ago, at the end of the Cold War, it seemed that only democracies promoted their values abroad. Today, autocracies have entered the arena again, exporting their ideas and methods — even to the United States.

Everywhere, autocrats are pushing back against democrats, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is the de facto leader of this global movement.

with Kathryn Stoner

Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer 2015)

In the late 1990s, as Russia’s economy descended into a death spiral— eventually culminating in the August 1998 crash of the ruble and the government’s default on its international loan commitments—a series of books and articles appeared asking, “Who Lost Russia?”1 Fingers pointed in many directions, but almost all to the West: the International Monetary Fund (IMF), NATO, President Bill Clinton, and then later in the next decade, President George W. Bush. Arguments came in many varieties, but divided into two polar opposite views: the West

Please see below:

https://stanford.app.box.com/file/752048175995

The tragic result of the gap between declared objectives and strategies on democracy promotion is that many Americans are starting to view this goal as no longer desirable or attainable. A more effective strategy for promoting democracy and human rights is both needed and available.

How Putin's Crackdown Holds Russia Back

Vol. 87, No. 1 (Winter 2007)

The conventional explanation for Vladimir Putin’s popularity is straightforward.In the 1990s,under post-Soviet Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, the state did not govern, the economy shrank, and the population suªered. Since 2000, under Putin, order has returned, the economy has flourished, and the average Russian is living better than ever before.As political freedom has decreased,economic growth has increased. Putin may have rolled back democratic gains, the story goes, but these

Vol. 32, No. 2 (Fall 2007)

Can the West promote democracy? An examination of one critical case, the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, offers a unique method for generating answers to this important theoretical and policy question. Tracing the causal impact of external influences first requires a theory of democratization composed exclusively of domestic factors, specifically the changing distribution of power between the autocratic regime and democratic challengers. 

April 2007

A review of Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War by Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder